What Could Have Been
by Little Tsu
Summary: The trials of a wanderin' chef & the life decisions she goes through.


_Little Tsu: Ok so um...I really love this series so I figured I'd give it a try on how I'd do with it. Hopefully, it won' turn out too badly.x.x_

**What Could Have Been**

_**{3yrs ago}**_

_"You're with Gourmet Corp.? Why am I honestly surprised ta find this tid bit out? Seriously, what the fork Cedre?!"_

_Drifting his dark gaze onto the short statured teen before him, the young man known as Cedre, who was the Culinary Head of Branch 6 for Gourmet Corp., sighed softly to himself when he spied the look of utter disappointment in the magenta eyes that he had grown to adore. However, unlike his usual habit of collecting the eyeballs from beasts as a hobby, he could never bring himself to taking these eyes before him from their owner. Reason being?...Well, the owner was that of a fifteen-year-old girl that he had surprisingly become close to soon after he had met her a few years back during one of his breaks away from Branch 6. He had just recently been placed as the new Culinary Head; having worked from the ground, up so to speak._

_Shaking his head lightly, he studied the girl before him carefully. She was his junior by six years, though that hadn't stopped him from actually becoming friends with the girl even if that had innitially been a total accident on his part. She stood at only five feet and beheld a tiny, yet lithe figure that kept her abilities hidden. Her deep magenta eyes stood out like a beacon against her messy lavender hair that fell in and around her delicate features and halted at her shoulders; not a single scar blemmishing her smooth cream colored skin unlike the three scars on his own features that fell straight down over his right eye and cheek that halted all the way down to his jaw and the two smaller ones directly in the corner and below that eye across his face nor like the piercings that he possessed with one on the inside corner of each brow and the three on the lower portion of his right cheek. Those, topped with his randomly sharp teeth and overall almost gothic look to his appearance, one could say that his appearance was the exact opposite of the younger girl before him. It made him almost wish he could taint her._

_"Listen, I've been with Groumet Corp. a while now Seika. Not my fault you're just now figuring it out." As his dark eyes became heavy lidded, revealing the guyliner even more prominantly around his eyes, he noticed the varying emotions passing through her usually expressive eyes. It was the flash of hurt that he spied for just a single instant that caused Cedre to force himself to stand his ground and keep from trying to console his friend. Instead, he said something that he knew more than anything that he'd eventually regret saying. "Hell, I'm surprised that you took so long to figure it out. You had no damn clue that I was just using you this whole time to see if you'd be worthy of being used by Groumet Crop. someday."_

_The moment those words left his mouth, a resounding smack echoed around them. With his head jerked to the right, he glanced down at the girl before him out of the corners of his eyes. Her hand had left a decently nasty print on his cheek and tears filled Seika's eyes as she glared up at him. "You ass...I can't believe I actually thought you were my friend...You're nothin' but a forkin' lier and monster! I hate you Cedre!" With that, the young girl whirled away from him and ran off; leaving the older chef to continue standing there as he allowed his gaze to drift towards the ground._

_Seika would most likely never know, but...those words had actually cut Cedre deeper than any blade or attack ever could and because of that, he knew all the more that he had regretted saying those lies to her and driving her away..._

_**{Present Time}**_

"...Coco, why am I here visitin' you again? You know I'm a busy girl."

"Seika...You're a wandering chef. You fix and prepare meals in their natural habitat so you don't work for anyone and you make your own schedule." Spying the blush on the girl's features as she quickly glanced away from him to avoid his knowing gaze, he allowed a very faint chuckle to escape his lips. "No matter how good you are at lying to others, you can't pull any lie with me; not with these eyes of mine, you can't." The girl before him had grown a considerable amount since he first found her three years ago. She had apparently gone through a great deal of emotional trauma and she ended up with quite the amount of trust issues. In fact, for a while, she refused to allow him anywhere near her or know anything at all about herself. He had eventually managed to gain her trust over time, but her past was still full of holes for him that he didn't know about; the reason behind her state of being when he first found her being the biggest mystery of all.

Compared to then, Seika had truly grown. Her eyes were still as sharp as ever, but she now possessed a curved scar in the shape of a claw on the inside corner of her left eye and a smaller outward curved scar on the outside corner of it; the monster that had done that having barely missed her losing said eye. Her hair was also longer now as it halted mid back in length when down, but was currently up in its usual style held in a high ponytail with two braids along the side of her head and also held within said ponytail. Her choice in attire was simple as she wore nearly knee high black boots for travel, slightly baggy black jeans with the left pants leg torn off at the thigh, which that thigh possessed a pouch for her Melk Knife, black fingerless gloves with the back of the gloves also bare, and a sapphire blue sleeveless hoodie that showed off her middrift. Over all, her appearance had undergone a transformation from young, innocent teen, to an eighteen-year-old young woman who held almost no innocent light within those deep magenta eyes of hers anymore.

"Earth ta Coco. Come in 'gentleman' of the Four Heavenly Kings...Snap outta your damn thoughts before you find yourself with a shaved head pretty boy!"

Well, that got him to snap out of his thoughts. Focusing his gaze back onto the teen before him, he sighed softly and shook his head. "For a chef, who is beyond delicate with her foods and seemingly a natural with foods that deal with special preparation, you lack such tenderness towards people."

"You're lucky I even trust you Coco so zip it before you'll be needin' ta eat outta a tube from now on." The look on her face was deadpan and that she didn't really appreciate his smart remarks. Overall, she looked dead serious with that threat of hers and to be perfectly honest, lately, her threats tended to be followed through if she was pushed far enough and they didn't take her warnings seriously merely due to her 'harmless' appearance.

Sweatdropping slightly towards her threat, Coco shook his head lightly and lifted his hands in front of himself as a show of peace. "Fair enough. I called you here Seika because Gourmet Corp. has been making their move more and more. On top of that, some of the chefs that are within the top 100 rank in the world have been going missing and we have a strong feeling this has to do with part of Gourmet Corp.'s plan."

Watching the girl's faintest reactions towards this news, completely naked to anyone's but Coco's eyes, he spied the faintest of muscle tension and the twitch of the fingers on her left hand while her arms were crossed over her chest. Thinking to continue further with this, he did so. "Lately, there hasn't really been anymore GT Robot activity. The ones that we defeated a months back, back at Biotope 1, seemed to have been their strongest; the ones controled by Gido, Cedre, and Starjun...Even outside of these GT Robots, Vice Chefs like GrinPatch and Tommyrod have made their appearance as Toriko had actually fought both of them..." As he spoke and filled Seika in more and more on this information, he had seen the muscle tension increase slightly more at the mention of the names...Or rather in the instant in time when he said one _certain_ name...

"What's your point Coco? I may be a chef, but I have gourmet cells coursin' through my veins. On top of that, I have Ace with me. I won' be captured so easily ya know...I'm not some helpless little girl." Seika's eyes seemed to ignite in anger towards the thought of Coco possibly thinking that she actually needed protection. Scoffing to herself in irritation, she finally turned around and headed off. "I'm outta here. I have food ta hunt down and prepare. And also, for your information Coco, I may not work for a restaurant, but I **do** work for the IGO in a similar manner that you and the other three Kings do..."

Sighing softly in dismay towards this, Coco rose up onto his feet and took a few steps towards her. "Seika, please listen to me. I only wish for you to be more careful and alert. I understand that you have trouble with trusting others due to something that had happened in the past, but I care a great deal about you. You're as much family to me as Toriko, Sunny, and Zebra are. I don't wish for anything bad to happen to you and have Gourmet Corp. get their hands on you..."

Halting at the door at hearing Coco and the almost desperate tone his voice took, Seika tilted her head down a bit as her hand rested on the door knob. Keeping silent for a moment as she thought about how to respond, she finally spoke up. "Coco...I know you say you care a lot about me...And I **do** trust you despite how long it took you ta gain it...But you have ta understand Coco. I'm not some helpless girl anymore. I'm a talented chef and a skilled fighter. I don't need ta form a combo with a Gourmet Hunter ta get protection while huntin' for rare ingrediants." Turning her head to glanced behind herself from over her shoulder, Seika finally offered the older man a faint smile. "...I'm fine on my own Coco..." With that, she opened the door and stepped outside before actually walking to the edge of the cliff and pushing off; leaping over the canyon as she landed on the mainland again where her partner was waiting for her. A soft coated white raindeer-like beast with a capture lvl of 70 was waiting for her, though this one's capture lvl was even higher and actually immeasurable; his fangs and sword-like metal antlers showed how deadly this large mammel was and it wasn't even full grown either as this Sword Horn was still a young one and only half the size of an adult.

Walking over to the beast, Seika smiled faintly as the young Sword Horn lowered himself towards the ground so his legs bent under his form to allow his human to climb up onto his back. Once she had, the teen chef felt Ace straighten back up on all four of his paws before turning around and walking off; both knowing that Coco was standing at his doorway, watching them leave. As they left though, Seika sighed softly to herself as her eyes finally softened sadly. She had been holding it in, but when Coco had mentioned Gourmet Corp. and then especially Cedre, it had struck a nerve with her and had taken everything she had in her control to keep from showing any emotion that would give her away. Yes, the man had betrayed and lied to her, but it still didn't wipe away the memories she still held dear to her from before she had found out. Somewhere deep in the recesses of her mind,...Seika believed that Cedre had lied about the three years he had spent time with her before she found out the complete truth towards his profession; that he had just been using her.

"Cedre..."

_**{Gourmet Corp.}**_

Cedre sighed softly as he rested his cheek against his lightly fisted hand while his elbow was propped up on the table that he, the other Culinary Heads of the different banches, the vice chefs, and the head chef were seated at. They had been discussing their next move and also towards the problems that they were having with the Four Heavenly Kings. Personally, other than the fact that he wanted to beat that irritating pretty boy, Sunny into the ground for what had happened within the Regal Mammoth, his thoughts were elsewhere as he held a look of distant boredom on his features. That is...untill a certain subject caught his attention.

"What about that young chef?...Seika. She's already shown a great deal of skill in both cooking with food that deal with special handling and in fighting to the point where she's never even considered forming a combo with a gourmet hunter. In fact, I had heard rumors that Coco had tried and she turned him down. She even has an adolescant Sword Horn as her animal partner and its capture lvl is said to actually already be higher than those in the wild still."

Tensing up and dark eyes widening a fraction, he listened to their thoughts on Seika. There was no way...They couldn't possibly be considering in actually capturing and turning her, did they?

"The girl is very strong willed...Too much so in fact. If she causes any problems that keeps us from obtaining the things we want, then dispose of her."

"What about her pet?"

"...Kill it as well and bring its meat to be prepared for our boss..."

No way...What the fork? This was a lot worse that turning her. Head Chef, Kuromado actually told them to kill Seika if she got in their way?! Clenching his teeth slightly at his, he forced himself to remain calm so that he didn't give anything away. Yes, he was loyal to a fault to their boss and to Gourmet Corp. as a whole, but damn it, why Seika? The one weakness he had outside of his job and the Head Chef had given the ok to have that very weakness targeted to be killed if need be. He couldn't let that happen, but he also couldn't betray Gourmet Corp. either. She may hate him still, but...Cedre still actually cared a great deal about the younger girl. She had been the one girl that didn't see him as disgusting at knowing what his hobby was or treat him differently. She had actually thought he was nice and funny; that she enjoyed being around him...

How was he going to protect the only friend he truly had without being found out and classed as a traitor by the very people he work with and for? As he wondered about this, the thought of seeing Seika again soon caused his blood to rush and his heart to pick up in speed. He hadn't seen her since the day she ran away from him after he had said those horrible lies to her...He silently wondered how much she had grown since then...And if she'd ever forgive him for those heartless words.

God, he hoped so...

**End?**

_Little Tsu: Yay, a cliffhanger!/o/_

_I seem ta do that often now in a lot of my work. I'm so evil.x.x_


End file.
